New Travel App Wants to Look Out for Your Poor, Lost Luggage

Losing a bag is no way to start or end a vacation. Luckily BagJourney—a soon-to-come app from air transport communications specialist SITA—has plans to make it easier to retrieve your personal items. Much like tracking any other package with services like FedEx or UPS, the app will keep tabs on your belongings as they’re loaded onto the plane and send notifications when something goes wrong.

Here’s how it works: Once your bag is checked in, it goes through SITA’s bag reconciliation scanner and a message with your baggage’s information is saved on the app. From there, the BagJourney team takes over. If your bag doesn’t make it on your plane, the aircraft crew is notified to file a lost baggage report with SITA’s WorldTracer (which is the system currently used by over 2,800 airlines to track missing bags). If you’re stood up at the baggage claim—which you’ll know about ahead of time, thanks to the app’s notification service—you’ll be able to track your bag’s whereabouts as the app team works on getting it back to you. No more mystery about when your road-weary baggage will arrive at your door.

Travelers have been trying to get around this annoyance by stowing their own GPS-tracking devices—like Trakdot—in their bags. There's even talk of "smart luggage" equipped with it's own geo-tracking system hitting the market sometime later this year. BagJourney is one of the first services involving the airline brands and taking accountability for your wayward posessions. The app is still in development, and currently attempting to forge relationships with airlines. You can keep up to date on its progress over on the official site.

Erika Owen is the Audience Engagement Editor at Travel + Leisure. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @erikaraeowen.